bossy
US/ˈbɔsi/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
cot caught merger/ˈbɑsi/
bossy adjective: tending to give orders to others, especially when unwarranted; domineering.
Adjective (1)
bossy (comparative bossier, superlative bossiest)
- Tending to give orders to others, especially when unwarranted; domineering.
- Over in the wardrobe department a bossy woman in ill-fitting dungarees tried to talk her into wearing a short red low-cut dress for the test.1994, Jackie Collins, Hollywood Kids
- Cuphead is a difficult gauntlet through a ton of bosses, from evil clowns to bossy queen bees.2017 October 2, Heather Alexandra, “Cuphead Player Beats Bosses Without Taking A Single Hit”, in Kotaku, archived from the original on 18 Feb 2018
- Synonyms:
- dictatorial, authoritarian, commanding, tyrannical, demanding, inflexible
Noun
bossy (plural bossies)
- A cow or calf.
- A week before, while riding the prairies, Raidler had come upon a sick and weakling calf deserted and bawling. Without dismounting he had reached and slung the distressed bossy across his saddle, and dropped it at the ranch for the boys to attend to.1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 174, column 1
Adjective (2)
bossy (comparative more bossy, superlative most bossy)
- Ornamented with bosses; studded.
- Synonyms:
- authoritarian, commanding, demanding, dictatorial, tyrannical
bossy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
bossy in Hindi
- बौसी, बॉसी
bossy in Tamil
- குமிழ்களுள்ள
bossy in Marathi
- बोसी, बॉसी
bossy in Urdu
- بوسی
More languagesFewer languages
- bossy in Bengali
- বোসি
- bossy in Telugu
- బోసీ
- bossy in Malayalam
- യജമാനഭാവമുള്ള, മറ്റള്ളവരെ ഭരിക്കുവാൻ ശ്രമിക്കുന്ന, ഗർവ്വത്തോടെ ഭരിക്കുന്ന, നാഥവത്
- bossy in Punjabi
- ਬੌਸੀ, ਬੋਸੀ
- bossy in Gujarati
- બોસી
- bossy in Odia
- ବୋସି, ବୋସୀ
- bossy in Nepali
- बोसी
- bossy in Arabic
- مُتَسَلِّط mutasalliṭ
Examples of bossy in a sentence
- The press (and plenty of others) call these women bossy, pushy, and opinionated, and the adjectives quickly get nastier from there.
- This kind of smiling, bossy sanctimoniousness was a little too pervasive for Toby, especially among the female members of the sect.
- And the secret to seeing—really seeing—was quieting the bossy know-it-all left brain so the mellower right brain could do its magic.
Synonyms of bossy
- dictatorial
- authoritarian
- commanding
- tyrannical
- demanding
- inflexible
- autocratic
- coercive
- controlling
- despotic
13 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of bossy
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | bossier |
| superlative | bossiest |
| comparative | more bossy |
| superlative | most bossy |
| Noun | |
| plural | bossies |
Origin of bossy
From boss + -y.
Diminutive of dialectal English boss + -y, as used in the term boss-calf (which, like buss-calf, is a variant form of boose-calf, a calf kept in a boose (“stall”)).
Words formed from bossy
Phrases with bossy
Words that rhyme with bossy
Questions about bossy
- What does bossy mean?
- Bossy means tending to give orders to others, especially when unwarranted; domineering.
- What is bossy in Hindi?
- Bossy in Hindi is बौसी, बॉसी. See Bossy meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is bossy?
- Bossy can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce bossy?
- Bossy is pronounced /ˈbɔsi/ (US).
Words near bossy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bossy (page history and authors); bossy (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bossy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bossy (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bossy (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bossy (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bossy (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bossy (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); bossy (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bossy (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bossy (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bossy (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bossy.wav.
Cite this entry: “bossy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bossy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.